Category: Good Attitude

Easter Egg Hunt with a Difference

Easter is just around the corner.

Adults associate Easter with different things like religion, long weekends and stuff like that. Many kids see it as a time to have a chocolate bunny or egg. In some households, there is a tradition of hiding goodies for children to find – usually outdoors. Brightly coloured bunnies poke their heads out of bushes and eggs nestle in odd places where no self-respecting chicken would ever dream of laying.

This year we decided to do something fun – an Easter egg hunt with a difference!

We’ve painted lots of pebbles and rocks and we’re going to hide them around the neighbourhood for other people to find. They can either keep them… or hide them again in another place for somebody else to come across.

“Yeah, yeah, Sibo,” I hear you saying, “what’s this got to do with me? I just can’t wait to get my teeth into a yummy choccy egg – not a painted stone.”

“Well… I was hoping that you’d join us, and paint a pebble or two and hide them in your neighbourhood, where ever you are in the whole wide world.”

You could team up with a friend or two, share paint and have some fun in the process. Your stones can be as fancy or as simple as you please. If you don’t have paint, you could draw on them with felt-tip pens, chalk, nail varnish or anything else. You could even stick a pretty picture on a stone.

You don’t have to go far to hide them either – you could simply put one in your neighbour’s post box. They wouldn’t know it was from you.

The whole point of this is to give something pretty to somebody else.

Ginny gets her paint from PNA in Silverwater Crossing – it is acrylic (waterproof) and costs around R20 for a little pot. You only use a teensy bit of paint on these stones. She uses a stick and the back of an old ballpoint pen (she uses the tip, too) to decorate the stones. They’re mainly a series of dots, all joined together to make flowers. Sometimes she goes overboard and they look a bit crazy, but they’re still pretty.

If you don’t have any stones, you could always use bottle tops – those work nicely too.

If you decide to join in the fun, why not post a photo of your creation on Sibo’s Facebook page—we’d love to see your ideas.

This is a pebble painted by Isabella – Ginny’s granddaughter.

So… if you live in the Meyerspark area in Pretoria East, keep an eye out next weekend—over 150 painted pebbles and stones are going to be hidden over Easter.

These are stones that different people from around the world painted and hid in their neighborhood’s. Faye from Canada, Heidi from the Isle of Weight, Lisa from KZN in South Africa and Judy and Hamish from Cape Town. Thanks very much for participating everybody.

Wizard of Wigwash

A story about a bullied boy, a talking penguin, an abandoned mutt and the magical land of Wigwash.

Ginny has written a new book that has nothing to do with Sibo! It’s called “Wizard of Wigwash – The adventures of Johnny the Penguin”. But she has not written it by herself – she has written it in conjunction with Alastair Kendall, hence the name Kendall Stone on the cover.

You are probably wondering how something like this happens, right? Well, Alastair lives in England and his Dad used to tell him a version of this story. He always wanted to write it down but writing is not really his thing. Ginny had offered her services as a writer on one of those internet sites and that’s where Alastair found her. The story evolved quite a lot during the writing process, and there were several versions before they reached the final one.

If you enjoy adventure with a bit of fantasy mixed into it, you’ll really like this book. It’s also about a boy who is bullied. If you know anybody who is being bullied – here are some ways that you can help.

It’s available from Amazon as both an eBook and print.

The Adventures of Johnny the Penguin is the first titles in the series.

This is what it’s all about…

Imagine being afflicted with an atrocious disease and not even realising that you have it? Ten-year-old Paul Balo has a rare genetic disorder which makes him smell like fish bait. His life is a miserable cycle of being nagged by his family to shower more often and being bullied by his peers. His only friends are a penguin named Johnny that understandably thinks he smells delightful and Polo, a rumbustious mutt, destined for the dog pound. Paul’s camp money has been stolen by bullies and he’s too afraid to tell his parents that he’s not actually going—they are convinced that school camp will be the making of their smelly son. Johnny saves the day by spiriting Paul and Polo off to the magical land of Wigwash for a week of fun instead. Without his parents’ consent of course. But things don’t work out quite as Johnny planned. The innkeeper’s daughter convinces Paul to disobey an order and they inadvertently find themselves in a time when Wizards were evil and life was decidedly tough. Can Johnny save his friend? Will Paul ever see his family again? This is a whimsical story about Wizards, a magical land, courage and… custard!

Believe you CAN!

Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

Have you noticed that some people go out there, do their thing and it works perfectly? Every. Single. Time. On the odd occasions when it doesn’t, they bounce back and tackle it from a different angle. Everything they do looks effortless.

This is often due to having bags of confidence and high self-esteem.

These are the people who feel secure and know that they can rely on their skills and strengths to handle whatever comes their way. They are ready and able to handle what life throws at them.

They think “I can” instead of “I can’t”.

True confidence is embedded in reality. These people know exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are. They don’t pretend to be something that they’re not.

Many people are not so confident, but in actual fact, it’s not that hard to cultivate a sense of confidence. It just requires some work.

  • It all starts with self-belief and building a confident mindset. Start by thinking “I can do that” instead of “Oh no, I can’t possibly do that”. Shake off any self-doubt.
  • Compare yourself kindly. We’re not all good at everything, but we are all good at something or have something that we can be proud of.
  • Make a list of the things that you are good at. Then practise so that you can do them even better.
  • Feel proud of the things that you do well. You don’t have to boast, but you can give yourself a pat on the back.
  • Dress for success, whether you are going to the office or to school, feeling confident in what you are wearing plays a part. Iron that shirt, polish those shoes!
  • Be assertive, not aggressive. Being aggressive turns a person into a bully. Quietly putting your foot down makes you somebody that people sneakily admire.
  • Take a small risk and challenge yourself to do something that’s just beyond your normal comfort zone. If at first, you don’t succeed, try again. Don’t give up.
  • Give yourself permission to be the ‘real you’. Instead of trying to fit in and be like everybody else, embrace your quirks and let them shine. Be the individual you are.

Remember what wise old Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”

At the end of the day, your confidence is your own to develop or undermine.

Stand tall people.

Sibo

Write it all down!

Journaling makes one a better person!

Hands up who journals regularly?

 “But I don’t have time…” I hear you say. Well people, make time because the only person who will benefit is you. Journaling is awesome for many different reasons.

For starters, it keeps you centred, helps identify your strengths and weaknesses and clears your head. Once you’ve written something down, you can let it go. It gives you an opportunity to reflect on your day, see what you were proud of or what you could have done differently.

But don’t only journal to talk about your day. Write down your dreams and aspirations and then go back and visit them periodically to see how you are progressing. Are you getting closer to your end goal?

“But I don’t know HOW to journal,” I hear you mutter.

It’s not hard. You don’t need a fancy book to write in – you can happily use a cheap school exercise book. It’s best to use a book and not your computer or phone because then you can’t get side-tracked checking social media or answering e-mails quickly.

Find a private place that is free from distractions.

Set a time limit – start with 5 minutes if you are just beginning.

Describe an experience – write down what happened that day.

Write affirmations e.g.

  • I’m a caring mother/father/grandmother. (Yes! Journaling is for everybody.)
  • I’m a fabulous cook.
  • I’ve maintained my body weight.
  • I’m a great teacher (or whatever).
  • I passed my test well.

Adopt an attitude of gratitude – list a few things that you are thankful for.

Do a critical self-analysis. Who am I? What did I do right or wrong? What could I do better? What’s holding me back in life? How do I fix this?

Obviously, you don’t have to do all of these every day.

Have fun in the process:

  • Maintain a log of successes.
  • Start a journal of selfies.
  • Write with your non-dominant hand.
  • Keep a nature diary

Write first thing in the morning or last thing at night (or both). You certainly don’t need to be a great writer to benefit from writing down your thoughts and feelings.

Remember, your journal is private – for your eyes only – be honest with yourself. There’s no point in fibbing because nobody is going to see it.

In a nutshell, journaling increases your optimism, reduces symptoms of stress, helps you advance towards your chosen goals and makes you a better person.

Start writing people!

Sibo

Scary Power Failure

ESKOM makes life interesting!

Mum and I had an interesting experience when we went shopping last week. As we walked in, I said “Oh oh there’s load-shedding here!” I could hear the rumble of a generator.

“Don’t be silly Sibo,”mum responded, then stopped, cocked her head and reluctantly agreed.

I smirked a bit because mum hates to be wrong. There seemed to be no problems, so we grabbed a trolley and carried on into the store.

About half way through our shop, the noise of the generator suddenly died and the store went dark.

Dark is not a very accurate description.

It was so pitch black you could barely see your hand in front of your face. One never really thinks about the fact that there are no windows in big supermarkets—there’s a lot of artificial lighting in use.

There were a number of yelps and squeaks. I’m not a fan of the dark either so I sidled closer to mum and hung onto the trolley. Mum, on the other hand, clutched her bag tighter so that nobody could sneak up on her in the dark either.

After a few seconds, people hauled out their cell phones and the pitch black was pierced with random holes of light, which made it less scary. That torch app is pretty useful in a situation like that and if you don’t have one installed on your phone, maybe it’s a good idea to get one. They’re mostly free after all.

The situation didn’t last long. The genny hummed, the lights flickered back on, off and then on again. Everybody resumed their shopping.

“Let’s hurry up and get out of here Sibo,” mum picked up the pace of her shopping.

I was quite impressed with the way that everybody just stopped, stayed where they were and did not panic or do anything stupid. Although I wondered if the shop experienced losses with some dodgy people taking the opportunity to pop items into their handbags or pockets.

I was also curious about what happened at the tills. Did the whole system crash? Did they have to start ringing up everything again?

Being a nosey person, I asked, and the lady at the till said that their system just carried on like normal. It was only the lights that went out.

At least the power seems to have stabilised again… for the moment.

Sending love and light people.

Sibo

PESKOM

Power outages are a pain in the butt!

My friend Ginny wrote a modern day, uniquely South African fairy storybook, The Imaginaeries of Faerie Glen, based in a nature reserve in Pretoria. Amongst other things, she rips off ESKOM—calls them PESCOM in the book, which stands for the Pesky Fire-Fly Company and they provide light in the Glen. They are just as unreliable and irritating as our own electricity company in South Africa.

Until the app “Eskom se push” came out, it was nightmare trying to figure out which stage you were on and what number your house was on the grid. There was a horrible, unwieldy table that my Dad printed out and stuck together to make a chart. He laboriously highlighted each teensy numbered block that represented our area. And still we got it wrong. The stages would change or load-shedding would miraculously stop.

Nothing drives my mother crazier than having meticulously prepared for a power outage at a certain time—like at seven o’clock in the evening. Charged solar-power jars, dinner prepared long in advance, lanterns ready, cell phones 100% charged. Plus she’d reluctantly come to terms with missing her favourite programme that evening.

We finished dinner just before seven that evening and sat around the table, waiting for that ‘click’ when everything shuts down.

Nothing.

Mum went to the kitchen to double check the time on the oven clock. That’s a pain in the butt too – you know how many times I have reset those digi clocks in the last few weeks? It was only five minutes past the hour—there was still time for the municipality to hit the ‘off’ switch.

Still nothing.

At ten past seven my Dad declared that that power was going to stay on and Mum could watch her programme after all. I shuffled off to my room and read by light bulb, instead of the solar power jar I had all charged and ready.

The next night, we were on the same schedule—the power was due to go off at seven. Mum was more relaxed this time. She’d also stashed all the lamps back in the kitchen cupboard (my mum’s a neat freak you know). 

Pow! At exactly one minute past seven, the power went out. Mum howled with rage and Dad said naughty words because he’d forgotten to charge his cell phone and only had 5% battery power left.

You just never know, do you?

Sending light and love people.

Sibo

Valentine’s Day

Squished between Christmas and Easter we have Valentine’s Day, where the shops are full of sappy hearts and flowers, enticing people, who have barely recovered from the holiday season, to once again buy, buy, buy!

Valentine’s Day specials on outfits, cards, CD’s, food, holidays, chocolates and even appliances. Really! Who needs a nice new vacuum cleaner for Valentine’s Day?

I know somebody who says if you play the Lotto, you are paying stupidity taxes. I think caving in to Valentine’s Day demands is probably on a par with that.

It’s a vastly overrated day—husbands, boyfriends and partners get into trouble if they don’t shower their loved ones with stuff. Not being taken out to dinner can cause a meltdown.

What is all the hype for?

To loudly proclaim: I love you. I appreciate you. You are my most favourite person in the whole wide world.

Shouldn’t you say that every day? Not just once a year?

It‘s not even a proper holiday—it’s just a commercial day. And yet it has become an occasion where people get upset if their significant other doesn’t acknowledge it, signifying their relationship and the depth of their feelings—so that other people can see too.

It’s also a waste of money day.

Shops rob relatively sane people of money for ridiculous things. Anything adorned with a heart is a sitting duck. Flowers fly out of their buckets. Restaurants are teeming. 

People propose. People compare. And some people die slowly inside from lack of real love.

Many folk desperately hope for a card or a gift. But the day ends and they have a large hole in their own heart, feeling unappreciated, unloved and uncared for.

Here’s a funny story. A friend’s husband gave her a gold bracelet for Valentine’s Day. She was very surprised; they had never celebrated the 14th of February in all their ten years of marriage. She started to dig a little deeper and discovered that her husband was having an affair. His mistress had hinted that she wanted jewellery for the occasion, and feeling guilty, he had bought something for his wife as well. Bummer! It backfired on him horribly.

If you love somebody, show them every day—not just once a year.

Do the little things that count. Flowers, random acts of kindness, gentle words. Live your love.

All the time!

Sibo

Turning dreams into reality

I saw this graphic on Facebook today and it totally resonated with me.

How often do you hear somebody say “I wish I could drive.” (Just as an example—although I do know a couple of people.) But they don’t do anything about it. They catch a bus or a taxi, day after day, sighing and moaning, feeling unhappy, wishing they could drive—being jealous and nasty about those who can.

If you had to tackle them they’d probably say, “But it’s so difficult.” Or “I don’t have the time to learn.” Or “But I don’t have money for a car so what’s the point.” Of course, if they can’t drive, they’ll never have a car, will they?

So they continue to complain that they’re hard done by because they can’t drive.

If they put their mind to it, driving could actually become a reality.

The old saying, where there’s a will, there’s a way still applies.

If they wrote down their dream “I want to drive by the end of 2019.” and stuck it up on the fridge, it would no longer be a dream. It has become a goal.

Then the next steps need to be planned.

Find out where a person can take driving lessons, and how much they cost.

Maybe you need to save first, to be able to pay for those driving lessons. Work out what is affordable and stick to the plan of saving X-amount every single month towards your goal.

Take action! Book the learner’s license test in advance. You can’t take lessons if you don’t have your learners.

Use the time that you are saving wisely: look and see what is happening on the road. Check out the road signs. Study the learners’ book, ask those who can drive questions, get them to test you on questions from the book.

Once you’ve passed your learner’s license, you can take those lessons—because you’ve saved the money and you have it.

When you’ve finished your lessons, you are ready to take your driver’s test. And you will pass it the first time because you’re prepared.

So what if you don’t have a car—you can drive!

There is nothing to stop buying your own car as the next goal. Saving towards a deposit, making it happen—one step at a time.

Turns those dreams into reality people—no matter what they are.

Sibo

The benefits of reading aloud

1st February is World Read Aloud Day.

Last year more than a million people participated in this event. Sounds fabulous, but actually when you come to think of how many people there actually are in this world (estimated at ~7.7 billion in November last year) that is pretty darn pathetic!

Every day should be a read aloud day.

Reading stories to children is probably one of the most beneficial things you, as a parent or older sibling, can do, apart from giving them love, food, clothing and shelter that is.

It’s not only little kids that enjoy being read to either, older kids appreciate a good story too.

Scary fact: South Africa came last in the world in a recent survey. They discovered that 8 out of 10 kids in Grade 4 cannot read for meaning – in any language. What does that terrifying sentence signify? It means that those kids can read the words, but when they have finished “reading” them, they don’t know what they just read.

It makes no sense right? Sadly it’s true, and when you don’t understand what you are reading, it strips away all the joy associated with books.

You, as a parent, have the power to instil a love of reading in your child from early on.

It’s as simple as reading a little story at bedtime. Every bedtime! It’s also a sneaky way of having one-on-one special time with your kids.

When you read with emphasis and expression, it makes the story come alive. Not only does that make it interesting, but the way you read gets your kids to understand how grammar works, without even realising. You pause at a comma and stop at the end of the sentence.

They can hear how words are being pronounced.

Being read aloud to also exposes children to new words and increases their vocabulary.

Literature is also a great way of helping kids understand something that they have not necessarily been exposed to themselves. It makes them more aware and instils empathy.

Please do leave your cell phone in another room when you are reading to your children. Possibly the most irritating thing in the world is having a story continually interrupted by pinging, ringing and a distracted storyteller.

To celebrate World Read Aloud Day we are making ‘Sibo Saves Water’ a free digi-read on the website. It’s a double celebration – the 2nd of February is World Wetlands Day.

Happy reading and listening!

Sibo

Getting Organised

Stress is a horrible thing. It often sneaks up on a person and causes all sorts of problems. There are many reasons why one gets stressed out but one of the worst causes of stress is being disorganised and finding yourself running out of time, or arriving at a place without important stuff that you need.

Like the homework you left on the dining room table or your PE clothes, or your permission slip to go on an outing.

There’s a relatively easy way to eliminate such stress.

Plan your day.

Ergh! Sibo. I hear you say… that’s so boring.

Not really—if you plan your day, you’d probably have more free time to do fun stuff.  

How many times have we all rushed around, looking for something at the last minute, panicking like crazy when we can’t find it—only to find that it’s right there, under our nose. Or even worse, having to leave the house without it.

Use a diary or planner and write down everything that you have to do the night before.

This way you won’t wake up in the middle of the night, think of something you have to do the next day and lay there worrying that you’ll have forgotten it by morning.

Part of planning, is developing a routine.

  • Try to go bed at the same time each night and get up at the same time in the morning. Set two alarms if you have a hard time waking up.
  • Have a shower, get dressed, and eat your breakfast (or the other way around if you are a messy eater).
  • Rather be ready to leave five minutes early than be running five minutes late.
  • Pack your school things the night before. Make certain all the stuff you need for the next day is in your case before you go to sleep. One less thing to worry about.
  • Create a routine for yourself as far as your homework is concerned too. Try and do it at the same time every day. Don’t leave it for after supper when you are too tired to think either.
  • Keep the space where you do your homework neat tidy so that you don’t get distracted.
  • Lastly, don’t multi-task. While you might think you’re getting loads of things done all at once, usually nothing gets done properly. Do one thing at a time and do it well.

Being organised means being in control.

Sibo